Typist&#39;s erasure guard



0a. 21, 1941. E, R, HERCE- 2,260,089

TYPIST S ERASURE GUARD Filed Oct. 25, 1940lllllllll'illl'llllIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIllllllll|lllllllll|1l|l|lll| I III}TEA.-

Patented Oct. 21, 1941' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,260,089 TYPISTSERASURE GUARD Edward R. Pierce, Washington, D. 0. Application October25, 1940, Serial No. 362,857

2 Claims The invention relates to a guard for use in a typewriter whenerasing errors, in work involving the production of an original and atleast one carbon copy.

The principal aim of the invention is to provide a new and improvedguard quickly and easily insertible between any typewriter-held sheet,upon which erasing is to be done, and the immediately underlying sheetof carbon paper, and effective when so inserted, to smoothly and stablysupport the work while erasing, with no danger of creasing the paper; topermit erasure at any point or points throughout the length of any orall of a plurality of adjacent lines of typing without shifting theguard; and to prevent the erasing operation from transferring any carbonfrom the carbon paper to the underlying carbon copy, thus preventingsmudging of said carbon copy and also preventing the formation ofsemi-blind spots on the carbon paper to later produce pale carbon copiesof any characters struck over them.

In carrying out the above end, a further aim is to provide a guard ofsuch construction that it may be advantageously used as a line guidewhen copying or proofreading, and may, if desired, constitute a carryingmeans for typewriter line and letter spacing scales of sufficient lengthto be of practical value.

Yet another aim is to provide a novel handle on one end of the guard,not only useable when inserting and removing said guard, but useablealso as a guide for accurately locating a point at which a paperfastener is to be used to-connect sheets of typed work, enabling theedges of all sheets placed on the same fastener to be alined, for moreorderly filing.

A still further object is to provide an article of the class describedwhich may be easily and inexpensively manufactured and profitably soldat a reasonable price.

With the foregoing in view, the invention resides in the novel subjectmatter hereinafter described and claimed, description being accomplishedby reference to the accompanying draw- Figure 1 is a perspective viewshowing the manner of using the guard.

Figure 2 is a top plan view.

Figure 3 is an edge elevation.

Figure 4 is an end elevation.v

In the drawing above briefly described, the numeral 5 denotes the guard;6 refers to an ordinary typewriter platen; I indicates a sheet of paperupon which typing is to be done; 8 rewriter platen 6.

fers to the carbon paper; and 9 indicates the carbon copy. While theguard is shown in connection with provision for making only onecarbon'copy, it is of course not so limited, and may be used not onlyupon the carbon paper directly underlying the first sheet or original,when correcting same, but employed in the same manner when correctingany additional carbon copies being made.

The guard 5 is in the form of a substantially rigid relatively long andnarrow plate which is longitudinally straight and transversely curved onan arc of a circle, said are corresponding to the peripheral curvatureof an ordinary type- The length of this guard or plate 5 is preferablysomewhat less than that of the platen 6, being substantially equivalentto the width of an ordinary sheet of typewriting paper; the width ofsaid guard or plate is at least sufiicient to underlie and projectbeyond a plurality of adjacent lines of double-spaced typing and saidwidth may be approximately from one-fourth to one-third of thecircumference of the platen 6; and the thickness of said guard or plateis preferably no greater than required to prevent localized deformationor springing under the pressure of the eraser and the pressure of thefingers used in holding the paper against the guard or plate and holdingthe latter firmly in position when erasing. Both longitudinal edges IDare unencumbered and straight and transversely rounded, and all cornersare rounded.

Due to characteristics above described, the guard will have .,,asufliciently extensive area of support to prevent any normal pressureupon the paper from transferring any of the carbon coating from thecarbon paper 8 to the carbon copy 9; an erasure may be made at any pointor points throughout the length of any or all of a plurality of adjacentlines of typing while the guard remains in one position; due to the factthat the transverse curvature of the guard corresponds to that of theplaten, there is no danger of the guard rocking transversely as it wouldif curved on a longer radius, and there is no danger of the longitudinaledges of the guard exerting such pressure on the carbon copy as totransfer any of its carbon coating to the underlying carbon copy, aswould occur if the guard curvature were on a shorter radius; and noerasing operation will tend to crease the paper, as it lies snugly andsmoothly against the entire area of the guard. The length of the guardis also of further advantage as it permits use of said guard as a lineguide when copying or proofto each other and meeting at a corner l6.

reading. Moreover; if desired, this length and the unencumbered edges llenable the guard to carry typewriter line and letter-spacing scales ofsufiicient length to be of practical value, such scales being indicatedin a general way at H and I2.

One end of the guard is provided with an integral upstanding transversefinger plate It which occupies a position at one'edge of the paper whenerasing and will thus have no tendency to cause creasing of the paper.This finger plate may be conveniently held between the thumb andforefinger when inserting and removing the guard, and I preferablyposition and construct said finger plate to perform a secondary functionalso, as will now be described.

The finger plate I! is provided with an upper edge II and a verticaledge l5 at right angles At a point about midway between the edges l4 andIS, the plate I3 is formed with a small opening l1 any desired distancefrom the comer It, said opening being of a size to receive the point ofa lead pencil. By holding the guard 5 in one hand and placing the plateI 3 accurately in'one corner of a typed sheet of paper, a pencil may beused with the other hand to mark the paper through the opening l1, thusaccurately locating a point through which to pass a paper fastener. Byso marking all sheets to be connected by the same fastener, their edgeswill be orderly alined for neat filing.

The finger plate I3 is useable for conveniently inserting and removingthe guard 5 for erasing, and said guard 5 forms a handle when using saidfinger plate l3 as a guide to mark a point through which to pass a paperfastener. I have found that when this finger plate I3 is at about a 30angle to the vertical, it may be conveniently and advantageously usedfor both its primary and secondary purposes.

From the foregoing, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing,it will be seen that a novel and advantageous article has been providedfor attaining the desired ends. It is to be understood, however, thatwithin the scope of the invention as claimed, minor variations may bemade. While stainless steel is preferred in manufacturing the device,any other appropriate material could of course be used.-

I claim:

1. An article of manufacture for insertion between a sheet being typedand an immediately underlying sheet of carbon paper while erasing on thefirst mentioned sheet, said article comprising a relatively long andnarrow substantially rigid plate, both longitudinal edges ofwhich areunencumbered, said plate being longitudinally straight and transverselycurved on an arc of a circle, said curvature corresponding to theperipheral curvature of an ordinary typewriter platen; the length ofsaid plate being approximately equivalent to the width of a conventionalsheet of typewriter paper and the width of said plate being sufilcientto underlie and project beyond a plurality of adjacent lines ofdoublespaced typing; the thickness of said plate being sufiicient toprevent localized deformation thereof under the pressure of an eraser orthe pressure of the fingers used to hold the sheet upon the plate andthe plate upon the underlying carbon paper, carbon copy and platen;one'end of said transversely curved plate being provided with anupstanding transverse finger plate which occupies a position at onevertical edge of the paper when said transversely curved plate is inuse, in which position said finger plate has no tendency to causecreasing of the work while erasing.

2. An article of manufacture for insertion between a sheet being typedand an immediately underlying sheet of carbon paper while erasing on thefirst mentioned sheet, said article comprising a relatively long andnarrow substantially rigid plate, both longitudinal edges of which areunencumbered, said plate being longitudinally straight and transverselycurved on an arc of a, circle, said curvature corresponding to theperipheral curvature of an ordinary typewriter platen; the length ofsaid plate being approximately equivalent to the width of a conventionalsheet of typewriter paper and the width of said plate being sufiicientto underlie and project beyond a plurality of adjacent lines of doublespace typing; the thickness of said plate being sufiicient to preventlocalized deformation thereof under the pressure of an eraser or thepressure of the fingers used to hold the sheet upon the plate and theplate upon the underlying carbon paper, carbon copy and platen; one endof said transversely curved plate being provided with an upstandingtransverse finger plate at substantially 30 to its length and shaped foruse as a guide when marking a carbon copy for the purpose set forth;each of said plates acting as a handle for the other thereof when eitherplate is being positioned for use or removed.

EDWARD R. PIERCE.

